Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland

This data set contains boundary layers for the Patuxent National
Wildlife Refuge in Maryland.

National Wildlife Refuges are federal lands managed by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The primary source for boundary
information is the USFWS Realty program (status maps, legal
surveys). A joint effort between the Region 5 (northeast - ME, MA, NH,
VT, RI, CT, NY, PA, NJ, MD, VA, WV) GIS Lab and Realty program, has
resulted in digital refuge boundaries for all refuges in the northeast
at a 1:24,000 scale.

The purpose of this data is to serve as a spatial reference of refuge
boundaries for other data layers in GIS and mapping applications. It
is specifically not intended to be used as a land survey or
representation of land for conveyance or tax purposes. The Realty
Survey program in USFWS is developing cadastral information (boundary
and acreage data) appropriate for legal purposes. It is expected that
data created in this project will be replaced as better survey
information is collected.

Status maps were registered to geographic coordinates, boundaries
digitized and labeled, then stepped through 3 levels of quality review
for spatial and thematic accuracy.

Refuge boundaries define areas that are approved by U.S. Congress for
acquisition in the National Wildlife Refuge System, or are currently
owned by USFWS. Arcs are coded with an item "boundary" that the type
of boundary line and polygons are coded with an item "status" that
describes their ownership status.

[Summary provided by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service]